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Resolutions….. Yeah.

As 2013 draws to a close, many of us will make resolutions for the New Year – annual attempts to “lose some weight” or “be healthier”. And haven’t we all been guilty of making vague resolutions that are difficult to measure and therefore impossible to achieve?

Zady, an artisanal, personally curated retail site, sought the advice of a happiness expert, a career coach, and myself regarding how to craft truly life changing resolutions. I was honored to provide my advice including how to pinpoint a source of motivation and curate a system of accountability that will make resolutions stick until lives are changed. Gretchen Rubin, the author of The Happiness Project and Michael Melcher, Executive Coach at Next Step Partners additionally provided their thoughts about being concrete in your process and working on your career every day respectively.

Stop with these big, grand gestures. How about smaller, more meaningful ones?

Example:

Do squats for 1 minute

Run for 10 minutes

Write 1 paragraph

Drink 2 extra glasses of water

Breathe in and out for 7 seconds each instead of 3

Wake up 10 minutes earlier

Do 1 task on your list

Smoke 2 fewer cigarettes

Drink 1 glass of water between drinks (or get so drunk that you simply can’t drink for another month)

Think of 1 thing you’re grateful for in the morning

Say 1 nice thing to someone today

Make your bed 1 time this week

Donate 2 pieces of clothing that you know damn well you don’t wear

The point is to start small, then build. You have an entire year to perfect this crap. Screwing it up before you’ve even begun is not some comically inevitable thing. I promise! You can do this! You can do anything!